Gore Goes To School
After gossiping at lunch with Al Gore, her schoolmate-for-a-day Tuesday at Avondale Elementary, third-grader Beca Rawlins had some political advice for her family.
"I'm going to tell my mom to vote for him, because he's nice," the nine-year-old Beca said at the end of an assembly where the vice president addressed students at the Columbus, Ohio school.
The two chatted about pets, jokes and food, Rawlins said. Both liked the sausage served Tuesday, although Gore skipped the bun it came on.
Gore spent almost seven hours at the 109-year-old red brick school, helping first-graders write a letter to "Mother Earth" pledging to pick up trash, drawing a collage of the Earth with a fourth-grade art class, and visiting with janitors in a basement boiler room. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has pledged to spend a day at a school every week or two during the campaign.
Gore used Tuesday's visit to release an "education bluebook" summarizing his proposals that include universal preschool for four-year-olds, smaller class sizes, testing new teachers, and making sure new and current teachers are qualified to teach their subjects.
The vice president pitched the value of early-education programs during a meeting with parents and teachers.
"I think that dollar for dollar that's the single most valuable investment our country can make," he said.
In a state where controversy over mandatory proficiency tests are growing, Gore said in Ohio he supported such tests as a way to keep the heat on school boards, politicians, and even taxpayers. But he said the tests should be fair and appropriate for children.
Less than two percent of Avondale Elementary fourth-graders have passed all five proficiency tests, compared with about 13 percent citywide and 32 percent statewide. But the school is striving to improve with the help of smaller class sizes.
Principal Mary Ann Burns, who praised Gore's visit and the attention it brought to the school's educational efforts, disagreed strongly on this point.
Burns opposes the state's fourth-grade guarantee, which beginning next year will hold students back a grade if they don't pass the fourth-grade reading test.
"I don't believe a legislator should say a child should fail the fourth grade," she said. "I believe a teacher and parent and principal should get together and decide whether a child should pass on to the fifth grade."
Sherry Morales, whose son Jason took the fourth-grade test last month, told Gore that her son was upset, couldn't sleep and was worried all the time about the test.
"Kids really work hard, and this is one thing more to hold kids back in their grade," she said.
Fourth-grade teacher Bobbie Brunner said she hoped Gore's visit would help overcome the negative publicity that teachers seem to get.
"It will generate talk, and we need more peope paying attention to our educational problems," she said.
"Happy," second-grader Phanat Stillwella said of Gore's visit after an assembly where Gore joined the children in the pledge of allegiance. "He might be the next president," added the nine-year-old.